Prosecutions in county on the rise as hotline gets nearly 10,000 calls

Arnold Bauer takes part in a video interview in his home in April 2008. Parks Stephenson

Elder-abuse cases

Prosecuted by District Attorney’s Office in San Diego County

2010 - 238

2009 - 208

2008 - 205

2007 - 211

2006 - 183

The golden years for many seniors slip away under a dark shadow of financial and physical abuse, most often caused by the hands they trust most to care for them.

It usually happens behind closed doors. It usually goes unreported.

Law enforcement and elder advocates said the rate of elder abuse is growing at an alarming speed as people live longer, baby boomers reach retirement age and the economy remains shaky.

On Tuesday near El Cajon, sheriff’s deputies discovered 93-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor Arnold V. “Max” Bauer in his squalid house clutching a photo of his war-era ship. They saw rat feces, rotting food, a sink filled with unwashed dishes and trash strewed about. Bauer’s live-in caretaker, who is now in custody, allegedly bilked him for thousands of dollars.

Bauer would hardly be a rare victim.

Experts estimate that only one in 13 elder-abuse cases are reported nationwide, based on various surveys and studies.

“We are only getting the tip of the iceberg,” said San Diego County Sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Varnau, who oversees financial- and elder-abuse crime units for his agency. “It’s a dirty little secret and Mr. Bauer’s case is a very clear example of how someone is isolated and forgotten about.”

In San Diego County, the District Attorney’s Office has seen the number of elder-abuse prosecutions rise in the past five years — from 183 cases in 2006 to 238 last year. The county’s elder-abuse hotline receives nearly 10,000 calls a year; about 40 percent of them directly involve financial abuse.

Many cases have both financial and physical abuse, said Paul Greenwood, deputy district attorney and head of the office’s Elder Abuse Prosecution Unit.

“People are getting more desperate,” he said. “They look around and they see who has the money and they target them.”

While some agencies have worked to educate the public, cooperate with mandatory reporters such as banks and set up hot lines and other reporting systems, elder-abuse experts and law-enforcement officials remain concerned about a lack of resources.

“We are not able to provide the infrastructure to deal with the avalanche of referrals that are going to be coming in the next five years,” Greenwood said.

An addendum to the national Healthcare Reform Act, which Congress approved last year, would provide money for combating elder abuse. But there has been no funding allocation so far.

Nearly 95 percent of seniors live at home and almost all elder abuse occurs there, the majority perpetrated by family members, said Kathleen Quinn, executive director of the Illinois-based National Adult Protective Services Association. “Trusted others” — such as home health-care workers, neighbors and friends — make up the next largest group of abusers.

“It’s absolutely an enormous problem,” Quinn said.

Other cases include abuse in nursing homes, home-improvement scammers preying on seniors, financial planners who fleece older clients, and home-care workers who get paid but do nothing and even steal from their clients.